Rotary socket for photographic flash lamp



Dec. 17, 1968 OKUZO TERAZAKI ROTARY SOCKET FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC FLASH LAMP Filed April 4. 1.966

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,417,363 ROTARY SOCKET FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC FLASH LAMP Okuzo Terazaki, No. 12, Z-chome, Chofu Minemaclii Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan Filed Apr. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 539,884 3 Claims. (Cl. 33945) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A photographic flash bulb holder which has a housing with a plurality of stationary gripping members positioned around the housing. A plate having a plurality of movable bulb gripping members thereon is linearly slidable in the housing with the movable bulb gripping members opposed to the corresponding stationary bulb gripping members. The housing has slidable bulb ejecting members between the bulb gripping members and spring loaded in the bulb ejecting direction, so that when the plate is moved so as to separate the bulb gripping members, the bulb ejecting members will eject bulbs.

This invention relates to photographic flash bulb holders of the type having provision for mounting a plurality of bulbs normally angularly spaced around the holder. In operation such holders are indexed from a position in which one of the bulbs is in an operating position to another position in which another bulb is in the operating position, after said one bulb has been used.

The invention consists in a photographic flash bulb holder having a plurality of bulb receiving sockets each adapted resiliently grip the stem of a bulb, and mechanism for relaxing the grip of said sockets in unison to allow used bulbs to be released simultaneously.

In one form of the invention, each socket comprises a movable member urged towards a stationary member, the movable members being carried by a common slide plate for movement in unison away from the fixed members, and a spring acting on said plate may provide means for urging the movable members towards the stationary ones. Thus. when all the flash bulbs have been used, with the pressing of the operating flange of the movable metal plate inwards, all used up flash bulbs are released from the holder by one stroke.

The invention will now be described by way of an example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a 4-bulb holder;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the holder;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional side elevation;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view with the socket operating plate removed;

FIGURE 5 is a plan view 0 fthe operating plate; and

FIGURE 6 is a side view of this plate.

The holder shown in the drawings has a housing 1 of insulating material and having four bulb sockets each positioned in front of an associated concave reflector 2 and each comprising a resilient stationary conducting member 4 secured to the housing 4, a movable conducting member 3 slidable in the housing and an insulating base member 6 urged upwardly by a spring 7. The movable members 3 are all pressed out of a common slide plate 3a which in operation is slidable in the base of the "ice holder and biased by a spring 5 acting on one of the movable members, in a direction which urges the movable members towards the stationary members 4. An operating flange 3b is provided on the slide plate for moving this in a direction against the action of spring 5.

In operation bulb stems are pressed between the stationary and movable members and pressed against the base members 6, the spring 5 being sufliciently strong to cause the sockets to resiliently grip the stems and prevent upward movement thereof by members 6. When all the bulbs have been used, plate 3a is pressed against spring 5 to relax the grip of the sockets and allowing the members 6 to push the bulbs up and thus release them simultaneously.

The housing also has therein leads to the separate gripping members which are coupled to a source of current for energizing the bulbs in a manner such that when a flash bulb is indexed to the position facing the object to be photographed, it can be energized. These means are conventional in the art, and are not shown, and form no part of the present invention.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, it will be understood that other structural arrangements and designs might be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

The embodiments of this invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

I claim:

1. A photographic flash bulb holder comprising a housing, a plurality of stationary Ibulb gripping members positioned around the housing, and a plate having a plurality of movable bulb gripping members thereon, each of the movable bulb gripping members being opposed to a corresponding stationary bulb gripping member, said bulb gripping members being adapted to grip a bulb stem thereibetween, said plate being linearly slidable in said housing in a direction transverse to the direction in which the bulbs extend from the bulb gripping members.

2. A photographic flash bulb holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said housing has a spring therein engaged with said plate and urging said plate in a direction to urge said movable bulb gripping members toward said stationary bulb gripping members.

3. A photographic flash bulb holder as claimed in claim 1 in which said housing has slidable bulb ejecting members of insulating material therein slidably mounted between said bulb gripping members and spring loaded in the bulb ejecting direction, said plate having elongated apertures therein through which said slidable members project to enable said plate to be move transversely relative to said slidable members.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1945 Buchanan 339196 6/1959 Michatek et al. 2401.3

US. Cl. X.R. 339-73, 91 

